Rethinking pasta

That the only way to cook spaghetti and noodles is in copious amounts of boiling water.

That lasagna and other baked pastas take hours from start to finish — and leave behind a kitchen full of dirty dishes.

That sauce from a jar is fine for family, but not for company.

None of that is true — at least not all the time — according to the editors at America’s Test Kitchen, who recently set out to prove that much of the common wisdom about pasta isn’t so wise after all.

They’re calling it a “Pasta Revolution.”

That’s the title of the latest book from this culinary powerhouse, which publishes Cook’s Illustrated and Cook’s Country magazines and puts out the public television cooking shows “America’s Test Kitchen” and “Cook’s Country,” hosted by Christopher Kimball.

America’s Test Kitchen is a real place — a 2,500-square-foot test kitchen and studio situated on the outskirts of Boston. More than three dozen cooks and editors work there, testing and perfecting recipes for dishes that are already family favorites — but could be even better.

That’s certainly the case with pasta, which, despite its popularity at dinner tables across America, is often too bland, too time-consuming, too heavy — or just plain boring.

As part of their “revolt,” the America’s Test Kitchen editors cut down on the labor required for some pasta standards and modernized others with new techniques and fresher flavors.

Skillet versions of baked ziti, lasagna and macaroni and cheese are made, from start to finish, in one pan. The pasta cooks right in the sauce, instead of in a separate pot of boiling water. And for some of the recipes, like baked ziti, the skillet even goes into the oven to melt and brown the cheese.

“Pasta Revolution” includes other shortcuts designed to make pasta favorites easy enough for weeknight meals. The recipe for Skillet Baked Chicken Parmesan calls for frozen breaded boneless chicken breasts, for example, while a spinach lasagna festive enough for company starts with Alfredo sauce from a jar.

And the book puts the lie to the idea that pasta has to be Italian with recipes like Tex-Mex Pasta Casserole and a skillet version of the traditional Spanish paella (made with spaghetti instead of rice). There’s also an entire chapter on Asian noodles and dumplings, including a shortcut version of shrimp pad Thai made with ingredients from the supermarket.

The test kitchen also gives a makeover to tired old pasta standards like tuna noodle casserole. Feta cheese, kalamata olives and cherry tomatoes make the book’s “21st Century Tuna Noodle Casserole” brighter and fresher than your grandmother’s version, with a sauce made from heavy cream and chicken broth instead of canned soup.

Even classics like pasta Bolognese aren’t immune to the test kitchen’s tinkering.

“Pasta Revolution” includes two recipes for the dish.

One features a long-simmered sauce made the traditional way with beef, veal and pork, but without the usual milk.

The other version keeps the milk, but substitutes ground chicken for the three meats, and cuts the simmering time to less than an hour.

So when you’re in the mood to cook, you can spend all day in the kitchen making a pasta classic. And when every minute counts, you can have something almost as good on the table in a hurry.

Choice — at America’s Test Kitchen, it’s what the pasta revolution is all about.